Anelastic relaxation in amorphous Pd39.5Ni39.5P21

In order to study the structural relaxation in an amorphous Pd39.5Ni39.5P21 specimen we measured the isothermal change in the internal friction of the asquenched material with an inverted Kê-type torsion pendulum. This change reflects a reduction in the amount of free volume which is quenched-in during manufacturing. We also measured the anelastic relaxation behaviour of thoroughly annealed samples. At 498 K it turns out that both processes are governed by a spectrum of relaxation times with the anelastic relaxation process having its main peak at a value which is slightly larger than that found for the disappearance of free volume